From Street Protests to Digital Hashtags: The Repositioning of Indonesian Student Movement in 1998 and 2025 in Alan Touraine’s Perspective

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-464-8_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Alain Touraine’; social movement theory; Indonesian student movement 1998; digital hashtag activism

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the repositioning of Indonesian student movements by comparing the 1998 reform movement with the 2025 digital student movement known through the hashtag Indonesia Gelap (“Dark Indonesia”). The discussion adopts Alain Touraine’s theoretical framework, which includes four main components: collective identity, form of opposition, total vision for change, and strategies used. The 1998 student movement was a form of collective action emphasizing physical presence in public spaces through large-scale street demonstrations, with the primary demand being President Soeharto’s resignation and a transition to a democratic system. Conversely, the 2025 student movement places greater emphasis on using social media to disseminate critical discourse toward the government, particularly on issues of transparency, social justice, and power inequality. This repositioning is examined through a qualitative literature study approach, analyzing both primary and secondary data sources. Primary data derives from social media and digital news, while secondary sources include scholarly journals, books, and academic studies. Several studies on student movements show a significant shift from conventional mobilization to social media-based activism, while retaining the core spirit of students as agents of social change. Despite differences in form and medium, both movements share a common essence of struggle. The similarity lies in their efforts to push for a more democratic, just, and participatory socio-political system.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Utami Dwi Ratna Asih
AU  - Victor Novianto
AU  - Esti Setiawati
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/09/21
TI  - From Street Protests to Digital Hashtags: The Repositioning of Indonesian Student Movement in 1998 and 2025 in Alan Touraine’s Perspective
BT  - Proceedings of International Conference of Islamic Studies (ICONIS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 246
EP  - 254
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-464-8_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-464-8_17
ID  - Asih2025
ER  -